How can we as parents encourage our child to speak?

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Q:My daughter is 3 years and 2 months old and is only talking a few words like ‘mumma’, ‘puppa’, ‘yes’, ‘no’, etc. She conveys a lot more in action and is very expressive in what she wants and knows how to get her way through and also understands when you tell her to do something. Two and a half months back I started sending her to a nursery school whereby she has picked up more words like calling her mother and father by name, saying ‘dada’, ‘dadi’, ‘doggy’, ‘nani’, ‘aunty’, which was not there earlier. Earlier she could point out to show a dog or cat or camel or anything asked for but did not speak. She could say ‘mumma’ ‘puppa’ when she was 10 months old only. We are a nuclear family. I have personally met with her nursery teacher who says that my daughter understands everything but takes the easy route out by conveying everything in action like for example if she wants water, pen or pencil. The teacher also said that probably at home I give in to her action and not encourage her to speak and therefore she is becoming lazy to speak. How can we as parents help her to speak?

A:Well, a lot of times children are delayed in their language development inspite of all other aspects(like physical development, social maturity etc.) being normal. In most of the cases its the lack of adequate stimulation which causes the delay. Also in such cases, the child's comprehension is almost at par with age but the expression is delayed. Your child needs to be evaluated once to rule out the possibility of any other associated problem and also to find out the cause for the delay. Based on the findings you can be guided accordingly regarding intervention of their child's problem.